Top 5 Rising Companies To Own For 2015

Top 5 Rising Companies To Own For 2015: Entergy Corp (ETR)

Entergy Corporation (Entergy), incorporated on August 19, 1992, is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including more than 10,000 megawatts of nuclear power. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.8 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy operates through two business segments: Utility and Entergy Wholesale Commodities. The Utility business segment includes the generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of electric power in portions of Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, and Louisiana, including the City of New Orleans; and operates a small natural gas distribution business. The Entergy Wholesale Commodities business segment includes the ownership and operation of six nuclear power plants located in the northern United States and the sale of the electric po wer produced by those plants to wholesale customers.

Utility

The Utility business segment includes six wholly-owned retail electric utility subsidiaries: Entergy Arkansas, Entergy Gulf States Louisiana, Entergy Louisiana, Entergy Mississippi, Entergy New Orleans, and Entergy Texas. These companies generate, transmit, distribute and sell electric power to retail and wholesale customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Entergy Gulf States Louisiana and Entergy New Orleans also provide natural gas utility services to customers in and around Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and New Orleans, Louisiana, respectively. Also included in the Utility is System Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Entergy Corporation that owns or leases 90% of Grand Gulf. System Energy sells its power and capacity from Grand Gulf at wholesale to Entergy Arkansas, Entergy Louisiana, Entergy Mississippi, and Entergy New Orleans. The electric energy sales of the U! tility oper ating companies are subject to seasonal fluctuations, with t! he peak sales period normally occurring during the third quarter of each year. On July 30, 2012, Entergy reached a 2012 peak demand of 21,866 megawatt hour.

Entergy New Orleans and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana provide both electric power and natural gas to retail customers. During the year ended December 31, 2012, Entergy New Orleans and Entergy Gulf States Louisiana sold 8,924,256 and 6,104,341 million cubic feet, respectively, of natural gas to retail customers. In 2012, 97% of Entergy Gulf States Louisianas operating revenue was derived from the electric utility business, and only 3% from the natural gas distribution business. In 2002, Entergy New Orleans, 86% of operating revenue was derived from the electric utility business and 14% from the natural gas distribution business.

Entergy Wholesale Commodities

Entergy Wholesale Commodities includes the ownership and operation of six nuclear power plants, five of which are located in the Northeast United States, with the sixth located in Michigan, and is primarily focused on selling electric power produced by those plants to wholesale customers. Entergy Wholesale Commodities revenues are primarily derived from sales of energy and generation capacity from these plants. Entergy Wholesale Commodities also provides operations and management services, including decommissioning services, to nuclear power plants owned by other utilities in the United States. Entergy Wholesale Commodities also includes the ownership of two non-operating nuclear facilities, Big Rock Point in Michigan and Indian Point 1 in New York that were acquired when Entergy purchased the Palisades and Indian Point 2 nuclear plants, respectively. The Pilgrim and Vermont Yankee and Rhode Island plants fall under the authority of the Independent System Operator (ISO) New England and the FitzPatrick and Indian Point plants fall under the authority of the New York Independent Sy! stem Oper! ato r (NYISO). The Palisades plant falls under the authority of ! the MISO.! The primary purpose of ISO New England, NYISO, and MISO is to direct the operations of the major generation and transmission facilities in their respective regions; ensure grid reliability; administer and monitor wholesale electricity markets; and plan for their respective regions energy needs.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Richard Stavros]

  Created with YCharts

  
  In addition to beating the market since the beginning of the year, diversified energy utilities, such as MDU Resources Group Inc (NYSE: MDU), Dominion Resources Inc (NYSE: D) and Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE), significantly outperformed pure-play or predominantly all-electric utilities, such as Duke Energy Corp (NYSE: DUK) and Entergy Corp (NYSE: ETR), by as much as several percentage points (See Chart B).
  
  Interestingly, among top performers, there was no dominant strategy for exploiting natural gas demand, as these firms were involved in all aspects of the value chain–from exploration and production to distribution and storage. These companies have not only been benefiting from a natural gas surplus, but also from the pressing need to expand US energy infrastructure to deliver this newfound bounty to businesses and households.
  
  

  Chart B: Diversified Energy Utilities Outperformed Electric-Only Peers

• [By Rich Duprey]

  Integrated electric power producerEntergy (NYSE: ETR  ) announced yesterday its third-quarter dividend of $0.83 per share, the same rate it's paid since 2010.

• [By Carolyn Bigda]

  Steve Halpern: Now, you have also highlighted a utility stock, Entergy (ETR). Could you explain your reasons for selecting that?

  Carolyn Bigda: Yes. In today's environment, the utility stocks have some of the most attractive yields, but like a bond, they are more at risk when interest rates rise, because these types of companies don't have a lot of earnings gr! owth, and! so, as interest rates rise, you don't get as much price appreciation.

• [By Richard Stavros]

  Top Utilities
  The electric utility industry typically does well in a deflationary environment, because these firms provide relative certainty of cash flows and high dividends. Here are our favorites now:
  
  Duke Energy Corp(NYSE: DUK) is a well-run, regulated energy utility in an accommodative regulatory environment. The firm expects earnings per share (EPS) to grow 4 percent to 6 percent annually in the coming years. Management has narrowed its full-year 2013 adjusted diluted EPS guidance range to $4.25 per share to $4.45 per share. However, the company has yet to provide its 2014 earnings guidance range, or capital expenditure and cost-savings estimates for 2015 and beyond.
  
  Duke remains committed to investing in the expansion of its generational capacity in South Carolina and Florida, as well as improving the efficiency of its generational fleet in Indiana. Moreover, management hopes to improve profitability by focusing on the companys international b usiness operations and renewable energy sources.
  
  NextEra Energy Inc(NYSE: NEE) has produced one of the strongest records of earnings growth among US electric utilities, driven by its large and expanding portfolio of renewable generation at its unregulated unit, as well as load growth at regulated utility FP&L. The latters favorable regulatory environment and the highly hedged, clean and well-positioned wholesale generation portfolio establish a solid platform for continued earnings outperformance versus NextEras peers.
  
  NextEras third-quarter 2013 operating EPS of $1.43, up 13.5 percent from a year ago, beat analyst estimates. The results were due to the companys effective execution of development projects, continual customer additions, and service start-up of renewable contracted projects.
  
  Entergy Corp(NYSE: ETR) is another steady player that has delivered consistent shareholder value over the year! s. The ut! ility recently posted th ird-quarter 2013 oper

source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksforum.com/top-5-rising-companies-to-own-for-2015.html